More on Exclusion

There is no evidence for the current feeling in the University that a horde of academic failures from other universities are poised to take advantage of Victoria University's lenient exclusion policy.

This view was expressed in a Minority Report appended to the Report of the University Ad Hoc Committee on Excluded Students by student representative, Bob Campbell.

This opinion was in sharp contrast to that expressed in a second Minority Report by the Committee's Convenor, Professor J.A. Gordon.

Professor Gordon argued that unless the University operates its exclusion rules rigorously, it might as well abandon them.

"If it abandons them," he added, "or operates under the current slack re-admission policy, we shall get an increasing number of students in flight from universities which do operate their exclusion rules firmly".

Of the 16 students interviewed by the committee, 5 were re-admitted to the University. "In a number of cases," said Bob Campbell, "students had chosen courses which were patently unsuited to them and which were the main cause of their failure."

More extensive course guidance, he suggested, both at the beginning of the university career and throughout it, is called for. Professor Gordon expressed his view that the original exclusions were "just and proper".

Of the 200 or so read missions by the Academic Committee after appeal. Professor Gordon said that they had leaned (at the lower end) "towards such bending of the rules and over-generosity that it was a foregone conclusion that the over-generosity would be extended by the Ad Hoc Committee".

All the students interviewed, he added, had records of consistent and repeated failure. Their pass subjects (if any) were more often than not passes on second or even third attempts. "With one just possible exception none of the students re-admitted shows any academic merit or has any likelihood of completing the degree sought", Professor Gordon said.